CUNCOLIM: Thousands of devotees gathered at the Shree Shantadurga Kunkalikarin Sanstha temple at Fatorpa on Tuesday, to celebrate Dussehra with great enthusiasm. Those gathered exchanged Aapta leaves representing gold.
The palanquin carrying the Goddess was taken out in the ceremonial procession at exactly 4 pm by the 12 Gaonkars called “Vangddi”.
After completion of the puja and religious rituals, devotees distributed Apatya leaves which symbolise distribution of gold to celebrate Vijayadashmi or victory over evil. The idol of the Goddess is placed in a specially prepared wooden structure called makkhar on all the days of the celebration and the same is pushed with reverence by the devotees.
It is the goldsmith community that oversees the installation of the makhar. Interestingly, even a large number of Christians are also seen attending this celebration. Goddess Shantadurga is revered by devotees as “Angoni” or the fulfiller of dreams and aspirations and that is precisely the reason why such a large crowds at the nine day celebrations.
Meanwhile, after the nine nights of Navaratri celebration ended in the temple town on Monday, the festival of Dussehra or Vijayadashmi was celebrated on the tenth day on Tuesday with palkhi processions of gods and goddesses in respective temples. The palkhis were bedecked with colourful flowers to mark the victory over evil. This palkhi procession is also known as Seemollanghan (Crossing of village border by deity on the palkhi) where thousands of devotees participated.
in the Procession of Goddess Shantadurga at Kavlem.
Similarly such celebrations were held in hundreds of temples on the occasion of Navaratri and Dussehra across the temple town.
On this day, a ritual called seemollanghan is held where people follow a token ritual of crossing the village border and offer flowers, fruits and coconuts to the deity during the procession.
After seemollanghan, there is a tradition wherein people exchange ‘aaptyachi pane (leaves).’ These leaves symbolise gold and the ritual is a symbolic representation of exchange of gold.